


A Collection of Short Stories from Professor Harry J. Potter

by emmiegrace



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Gen, Teacher Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-09-17 19:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9340250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmiegrace/pseuds/emmiegrace
Summary: Since I've seen the tumblr post from @batcii on tumblr I am completely under the belief that Harry would have been a fantastic teacher and it would have been really good for him. Here's some short stories of that AU. Don't worry they're in 3rd person."How did JK manage to write OOTP and not come to the conclusion that the only career with any true meaning for Harry James Potter was as a goddamn professor at Hogwarts like how do u write the D.A. scenes and say 'nah he’d want to be a wizard cop'"That's enough description honestly. See the full posthere





	1. Prologue

Harry did, in fact, make it all the way through the three years of auror training. He even went on to do an addition 3 years of service.

It was eight years after the end of the war that Harry realized that he did not wish to continue fighting dark magic.

Molly Weasley was not at all surprised (or upset) at the news, as she put it: “ _ He’d had quite enough of that as a child, I say. I never wanted him to be an auror at all. Wish he’d convince my son to leave as well, mind you.” _

Her son, Ron Weasley, was also unsurprised, although admittedly disappointed that he’d have to be assigned a new partner.  _ “It’ll be weird, won’t it though? You’ve really been my partner against all this since we were 11.” _

Harry’s wife, Ginny Weasley-Potter, and best friend, Hermione Granger-Weasley, both had similar responses on the issue. Both expressing that they  _ “saw this coming”  _ and  _ “support him fully in his decision to leave the ministry”  _ while sipping tea over the midmorning addition of The Daily Prophet.

Professor Minerva McGonagall, possibly had the most surprising response when news reached her. She offered Harry a job.

Harry was of course lenient to accept the position at first, he had a toddler and a newborn at home, of course, and surely teaching at Hogwarts would be long hours and nights spent in the castle.

It was actually Neville Longbottom, Professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and former school-days/wartime friend, that convinced Harry to take the position. While his friends and family offered both pros and cons, Neville simply wrote Harry a few words of encouragement:  _ “I’m not sure I’d be alive right now if it wasn’t for you, Harry. Still to this day I say you were the best teacher I ever had at this school.” _

With that letter Harry realized that he  _ missed _ it, the D.A. Not the necessity of it, but the  _ teaching. _ He was good at it. In the same way he was good at fighting dark magic, he was good at teaching others how to too. He enjoyed it more though, than constantly being reminded of the remaining darkness in the world. Teaching just made sense. It’s a wonder, really, that he hadn’t realized that his 5th year. But then again, he had more pressing matters on his mind at the time than his future - like if he would have one, for instance.

When he told Ginny he was going to accept the job, all she said was:  _ “Good. You’ve been fighting this war for much too long.” _

Harry got the feeling she wasn’t just referring to his decision to teach.


	2. That Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 3 stories from the first Summer before he started teaching.

The Summer of 2006 was a lot, to say the least.

To say more: It consisted almost entirely of child-raising and lesson planning. Which doesn’t sound like much, but teachers and parents, and especially parent-teachers can attest that that is, in fact, quite a lot.

_ To say the most… _

__   
  


Harry forgot his birthday.

Harry was up at 6 in the morning, the 31st of July, holding Albus Arthur with one hand,  _ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them _ in the other, and wondering if Runespoors (Classification XXXX) were too advanced for a 4th-year class.

Ginny walked into the nursery just as Harry was attempting to turn the page with his teeth (which is a task in of itself, but made harder with the fact that he was trying to do it  _ quietly _ ). Shaking her head and laughing, she tiptoed over to her husband, carefully extracting the baby from his arms, and watching as he quickly takes the opportunity to read on about whatever dangerous creature it is this morning.

“Happy Birthday,” she whispered, smiling, as she watches his eyes fly across the page.

Suddenly though he pauses at the words, “Is it really?” he asks, finally looking up.

“26 years ago today” she replies, rubbing their baby’s back. At the stunned look on her husband’s face she shifts up onto her toes to kiss his cheek. “I’m going to start breakfast. We’re going to The Burrow at lunch.”

After shaking off the fact that he’d been 26 for over 6 hours without even noticing it, he followed Ginny downstairs and immediately took the pan from her and began frying the bacon himself. With good timing too, as Albus chose that moment to wake up.

His nose was back in a book (this time  _ The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection _ ) when Ginny returned with both their sons in her arms, James already looking wide awake.

“Don’t you already know how to defend yourself against dark forces?” She comments, passing their eldest child onto him when he closes the book at her voice.

“Yes well I need to study it how a first year with no prior knowledge would.” He replies, not missing a beat, and flipping the bacon with his free hand.

She rolls her eyes and starts making tea with her free hand. “You’re starting to remind me of Hermione.”

“Oh Dear Merlin don’t tell me that!” Harry laughs, shifting James’s weight on his hip. This prompts the child to start playing with Harry’s -rather unruly- hair, and harry to kiss his son’s cheek in response.

“Hap birrday, Daddy!” James exclaims, clapping his hands together very close to Harry’s nose.

“Yes apparently everyone remembered that but me” he laughs, and winks at Ginny.   
  


_______________________

 

Hermione ends up helping Harry write lesson plans, as she is much more organized than he could ever hope to be.

They’re in the living room of Harry and Ginny’s cottage discussing the pros and cons of book-based learning when their redheaded counterparts join them.

The brother and sister are both holding large mugs of tea in each hand, and each pass one to their other half. “They’re at it again.” Ron states plainly, catching his sister’s eye and grinning. “Still can’t believe you’re choosing to  _ go back to school _ , mate.”

Harry looks up from his notes that are currently spread across the coffee table. Him and Hermione have taken opposite sides on the floor. “I’m not going back to school; I’m  _ teaching _ it.” He says, like he has said it the last 100 times to Ron since he took the job. Though it has become slightly more bored than it was the first time it was spoken.

Before anyone can go on the babies begin crying, waking from their nap upstairs. All four parents immediately move to get up, but Ron beats them all to it and proclaims that he’ll go for all of them.

When Ron returns with his daughter in one arm and his nephew in the other, the three others are debating if Gilderoy Lockhart had any highpoints as a professor of D.A.D.A. during his short stint in the position. 

Albus starts making grabby hands to his father, so he’s passed to Harry as he’s saying to the girls that they couldn’t think straight, they were too caught up in his “looks.”

Hermione took great offense to this, but Ginny was already saying that she never had a silly girlhood crush on Lockhart, she “was much more sensible than that.”

“You were just too hung up on Harry to notice anyone else.” Ron teases, and Ginny throws a pillow at him, expertly avoiding the baby in his arms, but still hitting him squarely in the face - a skill she credits to quidditch.

Harry laughs good naturedly as Ginny’s face turns almost as read as her hair. “ Oh yeah Gin you were real sensible. Wait what was that Valentine’s song again-”

“Harry, no-”

“How did it go now-”

“Harry I swear-”

“ _ His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad- _ ” He half sings, half laughs, and Ginny throws her remaining pillow at him

“I was eleven!” She yells as Hermione and Ron join in on the song.

_ “His hair is as dark as a blackboard!” _

“I hate all of you.”

_ “I wish he was mine-” _

“This is bullying” she mumbles into her hands.

_ “He’s really divine!” _

Ginny has now rolled onto the floor from embarrassment.

_ “The hero who conquered the Dark Lord!”  _ The trio finishes with laughter, that Ginny eventually joins in on.

“I want a divorce.” She says from the ground, looking thoroughly worn out.

Harry laughs and runs his fingers through her hair. She laughs too, as she grabs his hand, because yeah, she was a ridiculous 11 year old (possessed by the dark lord), but everything worked out in the end.

 

___________________________  
  


 

Teddy was beside himself that Harry was going to Hogwarts before him. The little boy was staying at his godparent’s cottage the last two weeks of August and spent most of that time begging his Uncle Harry to take him with him.

“You’ll be going in a few years, Ted.” Harry says, once again, while going over his last few notes, his godson greatly obstructing the process by facing him while sitting on his lap.

Teddy put on his pouting face (which is actually a lot more specific than it sounds), and Harry sighed. “How about you and Aunt Ginny come to visit me at Hogwarts one weekend? Will that make you feel better?” Harry thinking that he’d much rather like to spend time at  _ home _ on the weekends, but also liking the idea of showing an excited Teddy around the castle.

Teddy immediately shifted, his hair turning back to it’s usual bright blue (his favorite color) from the moody brown it was, and is grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of getting to  _ see _ Hogwarts before turning 11. He kisses his godfather on the cheek and runs off to the playpen to inform (the rather ignorant) baby James of the good news.

When Ginny came back from Quidditch practice she was immediately attacked with the news, she gave Harry the rather signature (though not as signature as Teddy’s) “you-caved-in” look and Harry just shrugged sheepishly. Just happy to see his godson happy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I'll always post chapters like this. And I don't think the stories will continue being chronological. Probably just these first three will. Chonologicality is for long stories with drama. This is not one of those. These are happy.
> 
> Comments keep writers writing ❤︎


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry learns some important lessons about war.

War rests heavy on the soul. Just behind behind the foggy eyes of the soldier one can see the stories they hold and the things they’ve seen too young. Every once and while the memories break through the glass walls they’ve so carefully built since the last time it was shattered. But always, they are there, waiting, waiting until something happens that can bring them all flooding to the forefront. The tired soldiers with their heavy souls, bruised and broken, carefully glued back together every time they fall apart. Always reminded of the war they didn’t start-  _ by my god did they end it. _

The soldiers are everywhere. There’s the one who was on the battlefield since the beginning- fighting for what he believed in. The mother who lost her son, and the father who lost his daughter. The girl who held her best friend as she died in her arms- who still hears her in her sleep. The boy who wasn’t quick enough to save  _ him- _ who still dreams of the face he made when he died. The kids who watched as their parents were beaten and taken from them. The baby who never knew his own. The family that was on the run for years. The teacher who watched her students deal with it. The kids who weren’t there, but watch their parents remember.

There’s an orphan boy who ended the first war, and lost his parents because of it.

There’s an orphan boy who ended the second war, and lost his innocence along the way.

There’s an orphan boy who grew up to be an orphan man and raise an orphan son and have his own as well.

He promised himself at only 17 years old that his kids would never see war.

But they see it in their father everyday.

Nonetheless though he smiles. Because yes, he knows what it’s like to have a hard life. But he also knows what it’s like to be loved, to have family, and he continues fighting for that even after the war is over. He keeps the demons at bay so that he can be happy- for more than just himself.

Harry Potter is a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He’s a father to James, Lily, Albus, and his godson, Teddy Lupin. He’s husband to Holyhead Harpies Chaser Ginny Weasley-Potter. And he’s a soldier.

Almost everyday Harry sees the war stories behind the eyes of his family, friends, and students.

And that’s okay.

_____________________

 

Kala Karim taught Harry that the war wasn’t fought only where he could see it.

Professor Karim reminded Harry a lot of Professor McGonagall, she was strict, and possibly a bit too serious from time to time. Kala was raised Muslim in India to a prominent wizarding family that loudly spoke out against Death Eater beliefs. 

When she was 16 years old her house was burned down and her family had to flee to America. She wasn’t able to complete her wizarding education, as they were in hiding, but she continued to study what she could, and eventually reached out to McGonagall for the Transfiguration position at Hogwarts despite her incomplete education. More than anything that made her want to be a teacher even more.

She lost her father and youngest brother in the fire. She always wears long sleeves to hide the burns from fingertip to shoulder that the flames left on her that night.

She always says though that the scars she  _ can’t _ hide are the ones that hurt the most.

Harry secretly agrees.

 

_____________________

 

Alfred Cattermole reminds Harry of the things he forgot to remember during the war.

The (relatively fretty) Hufflepuff 3rd year looks positively terrified to say his name. Harry gets the feeling he doesn’t often raise his hand in class. Much less on the first day to a new teacher.

“Al- Alfred Cattermole, sir. Is it boggarts you’re referring to, sir?”

“Yes, precisely... Mr. Cattermole, was it?” Harry pauses for a moment, studying the boy, “An odd sense of deja vu had suddenly hit him. “That sounds familiar. Do I know your father perchance?”

The boy got impossibly more nervous sounding, “Uh… Reginald Cattermole is my father, sir.”

Harry suddenly was hit with the memory of Ron drinking Polyjuice potion and turning into the man they’d just made vomit all over the street. That man later returning in complete disarray, and the three of them forcing him, his wife, and kids into hiding after saving Mary Cattermole from a probable future in Azkaban.

All of this Harry had to shake off before the flashbacks got deeper, and he found himself looking around at his class- a mixture of worry, confusion, and interest staring back at him. 

“Yes, yes. I may… I may have heard the name before… Anyway, as I was saying…” And thus Harry continued on with the lesson.

After class though he called Alfred Cattermole up to his desk. Because he’s Harry Potter. And Harry Potter has always been curious. And completely unable to help himself.

“Alfred-” Harry started.

“Al.” He corrected on impulse, and the appeared to immediately regret it.

He smiled reassuringly. “Al,” he started again, “I have to tell you. I- well I have met your parents. During the war… we sort of… ran into each other.”

“I know, sir.” Al said, taking Harry by surprise.

“Really?”

Alfred seemed to be warming up to Harry now. Harry couldn’t exactly say why, but nonetheless the boy opened up. “When I was two my parents came home and said ‘Harry Potter saved us! We have to go now!’ and we all went into hiding.” Harry blushed at this, but Alfred seemed to steel himself further and went on, “We were in the woods and stuff for months. Once the Death Eaters got me and my mum, but we escaped… My sisters and my dad y’know… they’re pretty great…”

Harry sort of breathed a sigh of a relief at that, knowing finally (even if he did forget) that his whole family made it through the war. That the Cattermole’s considered them to “save” their lives rather than ruin it. “That’s good to hear.” He said outloud to Al.

“Yeah actually oh that reminds me!” Alfred said, suddenly very brave now that he was talking about his family. “I have this... Thing.” And at that start rummaging through his bag. 

Eventually he pulled out a small leather journal (that honestly brought back a whole other set of memories Harry had to fight back) and pulled a small muggle polaroid picture from it. “My mum,” Al started, as he handed the photo to Harry, “Was best mates with yours when they went here.” He finished, and Harry looked down at the small photo of teenaged Mary and Lily, both in Gryffindor robes on Platform 9¾ , laughing at whoever was taking the photo. 

Harry couldn’t find words to answer, and Al went on: “Your dad, he’s the one taking the picture. My mum she was muggle-born, y’know,” At this Harry nods distractedly, “She brought that old muggle camera and apparently James thought it was really funny…”

“My…” Harry catches himself before going on, “My mum was muggle-born too y’know.” He says, finally tearing his eyes away from the photograph to smile up at his student. 

“Yeah Mum talks about Lily a lot. She knew you as a baby.” Al says, once again catching Harry off-guard. 

“Wow. I… I didn’t know that.” Harry says, and finds himself thinking that there’s actually a lot he never thought to question about his parents. Like who their friends were… 

Alfred shrugs, clearly out of things to say now and uncomfortable by that fact, “You can keep that.” He says pointing to the picture, and already slinging his bag over his shoulder to leave.

“No I couldn’t- possibly-” Harry says, holding the picture out.

“Sure you can.” Alfred shrugs again, and walks out without another look back.

Harry smiles and turns the photo over.  _ ‘Lily Evans and Mary McDonald September 1st 1976 - Photo by James Potter (the best wizard muggle photographer ever)’  _ it reads in scratching handwriting. Below it in a neater swirly cursive someone wrote:  _ ‘The  _ _ only _ _ one ever’ _

_ ‘Shut it, Evans.’ _

_ ‘Make me, Potter.’ _

Harry had unshed tears in his eyes as he tucked the polaroid into the frame on his desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well another chapter ended up being sorted this way :)
> 
> The first part I wrote when I was trying to go to sleep, forgot it, remembered it, and then finally actually wrote down.
> 
> For Kala I really just wanted to give you guys her story. Her character just sort of came to me while I was thinking of who Harry would be working with and the story came with her. I wanna write more with her, but I didn't want there to be any mistaking her either. I think her story is an incredibly important, and this seemed like a good place to sort of... write it all down. 
> 
> With Alfred I just really love the idea that the Marry Cattermole in the beginning of Deathly Hallows is also the Mary McDonald we hear mentioned in the Prince's Tale. And I love even more the idea that Lily and her were friends, and that she knew Harry as a baby. So I just wanted to include that in here. Plus a little sprinkle of Jily is good for everyone ;). Anyway, there will definitely be more Al as well.
> 
> (Comments keep writers writing ❤︎ )


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tribute to the 19th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.

_ 2nd May, 2006 _

It seemed to hit them like a brick wall every year.

Even in the first few years, when they saw it coming, when they felt like the were prepared to relive the day they lost so many, the day they changed forever- even then it hurt. That’s the thing about brick walls, even when you seem to be running right towards it- it still hurts when you collide.

Harry thought of this as he took the Daily Prophet from the delivery owl that morning- the date seemed to be the only legible thing on the paper. He was in his office. It’s the first year since 1999 that he’d been at Hogwarts on the 2nd of May. 

He could hear them. Screams and crashes, the sounds of battle- they were bouncing off the walls, reverberating inside his head. He doesn’t remember fighting here. It’s of the few places in the castle that he could say that. But he knows people did. He knows that someone likely died here. Their life ended here and if he’d only gone sooner he could have-

Absently, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder. He should have known she would come.

“You don’t have to be here today.” Ginny said from behind him, looking squarely at his profile. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t say the same things about Harry’s office. In the corner space she saw Michael Corner slump lifeless against the wall before she ran from his attacker. The memory still haunted her, and Harry knows she saw it- she’s woken up screaming next to him enough times for him to know practically everything she’d seen that school year. He just doesn’t know exactly where yet.

“I should be though.” Harry said, shaking his head, and bringing her out of her thoughts.

“There aren’t any classes today, we can go home.” She tried again rather hollowly- knowing it was a futile attempt already.

Harry looked at her at this, “Hogwarts was my first home.” He said simply, but goes on after a pregnant pause. “I didn’t do enough, Gin.”

“Harry-” Ginny started.

Harry held his hand up to interrupt her. “Just walk with me. Please?” He asked, desperation swimming behind his eyes.

Ginny sighed, and took his outstretched hand. She cast a remorseful look to the dark corner that haunts her nightmares as they exit the office.

They passed the space where Fred died and Ginny doesn’t even attempt to hold back her sob.

The entered the tower where Tonks and Lupin fell together, and Harry let a silent tear fall.

They stood on the balcony where Lavender Brown had her last thoughts, and they held each other closer.

They paused on the patch of grass where Colin Creevey had been found, and they mourned the loss of innocence.

They stepped onto the exact stone Ginny was standing on when she thought Harry was lost to her forever. She squeezed his hand to make sure he was still there.

They hovered at the edge of the Forbidden Forest where Harry had thought he was walking to his death. Where he saw his mother and father for the first and last time in well memory. He remembered that the stone is still in there. He prayed that no one would ever find it.

They walked onto the Quidditch Pitch to the place where Harry brought Cedric back. He was the first death at the beginning of a bloody and cruel war. The first real tragedy they experienced that led to thousands more.

They stopped under the Astronomy Tower where Albus Dumbledore had once laid, and they looked out onto the silent Hogwarts grounds. Distantly they saw the distinct ivory mark of his passing. The great leader who had too many dark secrets.

They saw the shack where Severus Snape revealed his truth, and wondered at the smudged line between good and evil.

They remembered all these things, and the last time they had taken this journey at only 17 and 18 years old. When the scars were still fresh and the wounds not quite healed. When the memories weren’t quite as faded around the edges.

But inside the castle the next generation -the generation that they had saved- was waking, and beginning to bustle about, some still too young to fully understand why it is they didn’t have classes that day, some knowing all too well. 

The Potter’s stood at the edge of Hogwarts grounds and knew it was all worth it. The sadness, the heartbreak, the loss, the scars- all of it. The innocent lives lost and suffered didn’t deserve it, but at the very least they died for a worthy cause. 

And with that thought, they flickered back to the home they’d built despite the broken bones.


End file.
